Well, it was by chance that I managed to meet up with Ocean Teh, owner of Sri Malaya Heritage Restaurant located at Jalan Pintal Tali, or Rope Walk in Penang. Sri Malaya is housed in a restored heritage building, along the historic Rope Walk, which was famous in the past as the place to get ropes :)
Back to Sri Malaya. Here they serve a mixture of Western and local menu. Its interesting to see that you can have an affordable and delicious meal for under RM20 at such a nice restaurant setting. What catches my eye immediately was that they have great lunch promotions :) A free drink with any meal order. WOW.
My family and I ordered a few items when we were there. For drinks, we ordered fresh mango and it was the start to a great evening. The mango juice was thick and you know its made with real mangoes and not some syrup.
First entree to arrive was the wild mushroom soup. At first the soup looks like any typical mushroom soup, but once we tried it, we were immediately hooked to the taste. It was fresh, full of mushroom flavor and more importantly, even my 3 year old daughter was giving the thumbs up! Now you can't cheat a 3 year thats for sure. The soup has a nice texture and you can really bite into the finely chopped mushrooms. I have yet to find out what types of mushrooms were used and will probably need to return to find out more.
Next we had the Lamb Shank. After the delicious and appetizing soup, we can't wait to see the Lamb Shank as its supposedly one of their top dishes. When the staff brought the plate to the table, our eyes widened. The plate was big, and more so what was on the plate. The Lamb Shank was a sizeable portion and it was sitting on top of a good helping of mash potatoes. Oh I forgot to mention, when you order a main course, you get to choose to have fresh garden greens or roasted garden greens. Basically how you would like your vegetables at the side. We chose to have fresh garden greens and got a good amount of fresh salad. Besides these, it also comes with big chunks of roast potato and nice cherry tomatoes. Just talking about the plate of Lamb Shank makes me hungry. Now to the taste. Before biting into it, I can see that the meat is well stewed. The lamb was falling off the bone which is a good sign that its nicely done. And yes, I was right. The meat was very tender, not tough at all, and I can taste the marination and herbs going through my mouth. A scoop of mash potato plus a slice of lamb together, excellent combination. I was very happy with this Lamb Shank and with the portion, it will definitely fill you up.
The other main course that was ordered is the Seafood Platter. As one would expect from the description, it is a combination of grilled seafood. Hmm, mouth watering indeed. Again, when the plate arrived, it was a very nice portion. Big chunks of fish, large prawns, muscles and a big helping of calamari (yeah nice name for Sotong!). Now the trick with grilled seafood is that there is always a worry that one will spoil the taste of the fresh seafood. But I was not disappointed here at Sri Malaya. Their chef got their timing right on. The fish, is cooked nicely, with the outer layer nicely scorched. The fish is surely fresh to begin with too. Nice. Then the large prawns, has the shells cut at the back to make it easier to dig in. No regrets here too. The muscles, were grilled well too, and I was enjoying myself thoroughly using a knife to make sure I get every bit of the muscle. Finally the calamari. I must say this is the best grilled calamari I have ever had. The calamari was just so juicy and tender, not at all tough to the taste which is very common. I must applaud the chef for being able to cooked it so well. There must be some secret method of cooking it. Oh, for this, we ordered grilled garden greens and got a combination of grilled broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. The vegetable was just nice and went well with the seafood.
To end the evening, we had the cake of the day, which was chocolate cake. One can have it serve hot or cold. It was coated in chocolate and looked very appetizing. On first bite, I could taste the richness of the cake. It was moist and the the combination of the chocolate on the coating makes it very filling. The family enjoyed this cake very thoroughly indeed.
Before I end this, I would like to highlight some of the uniqueness of this place. It has an upper floor, which was initially planned to be the home for the owner. But to overwhelming response from diners, he will now make it into a private dining area or place for gatherings or parties. Prior booking for its use would be best to avoid disappointment.
Besides that, the restaurant also have a side door which lead to a very nice garden. Ocean has made a very nice vertical garden from some of the salvaged building material and it looks marvelous. Ocean definitely have green fingers when it comes to plants too.
All in all, Sri Malaya is definitely a new place to have a good meal and would suit all. Do check it out!
Their details
No. 1 Rope Walk (Jalan Pintal Tali), (Opposite Air Asia @ Chulia Street)
Opening hours : 11.45am-3.00pm, 6.00pm-11.00pm, Closed on Tuesday
Phone : +604-261 3763
Getting there:
Get to Chulia Street and turn into Jalan Pintal Tali. You need to get in from Chulia Street as Jalan Pintal Tali is a one way street. The restaurant is 30meters on your left after turning into Jalan Pintal Tali. Its the bright yellow building. Can't miss it!
ps, tell them you heard about it from an email recommending the place :)
